HLWW Middle School Newsletter

Welcome to the HLWW Middle School Monthly Newsletter! We hope this will provide additional insight on the many activities and events taking place at HLWW.

If you wish to be added to the mailing list, please email adamlakerpride@hlww.k12.mn.us

• November 13: Two Hour Late Start
• November 27-29: Thanksgiving Break
• December 5th Middle School Choir Concert 7PM
• December 17th 5th/6th Band Concert 6:30PM, 7th/8th 7:30pm
• December 23-January 1st: Winter Break

Trey Tondera, Anthony Lahr, Hailey Birkholz, Luke Lachermeier

By Sam Muller 7th/8thGrade Science Teacher

This is my second year teaching in the Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted school district, and things are off to a wonderful start. I could not be happier with the group of 7th and 8th grade students I have this year, as well as the amazing staff that I get to work alongside and collaborate with every single day. This school has an amazing educational environment that assist students in reaching their full academic potential. The building is only a handful of years old, and all of the students and staff are lucky to call it home. I would like to thank the community for helping build this school for the benefit of the many people in the Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted area.

As for the things going on inside my classroom, I would like to highlight one learning activity in particular that I think shows how learning can be both educational and fun. Starting last week my 7th graders began working on an insect collection project. They learned all about the diversity of insects, and how they are essential to our survival by being food for many different animals and for pollinating several important crops as well as many beautiful flowers. The students went outside and collected insects in and around the FFA garden and the school pond for an entire class period on Monday, September 16th. I was surprised by how much fun and enthusiasm the students displayed as they ran around in the grass and dirt attempting to catch flying and hopping bugs with their hands or a butterfly net (many students had told me before we went outside that this project was “disgusting” and they didn’t want to get anywhere near bugs).

After they were collected, the students brought the insects inside the classroom to be pinned and identified. Overall, the students did an amazing job with their collections and some were very excited to start their own collections at home (sorry parents and guardians). The first year and three weeks of my career at HLWW Middle School has been more than I could have hoped, and I am excited to see how the students do for the rest of the 2019-20 school year!

By Andy Hertwig, 7th Grade Health Teacher

As the second part of the body systems unit, it just so happens that this time of year the 7th grade health students are taking a look at the human skeleton and the functions of the skeletal system. Being that it is around Halloween it is perfect timing to learn about those skeletons you see all over the place.

To start, the students learn some basic anatomy, including labeling some long bones (femur), backbones (vertebrae),and funny bones (humerous, okay that wasn’t that funny), and many more. Aside from locating bones, the 7th graders also focus on the five functions of the skeletal system: Shape and Support, Protection, Movement, Production of Substances, and Storage of Substances. To conclude the unit, they will make videos showing how the muscular system and skeletal systems work together to help you move.

So as you go trick or treating this year don’t be afraid to ask your son/daughter if they can identify a few of the major bones on each of the skeletons you pass while collecting some candy. They should know!

By Rick Baumann, 5th Grade Science Teacher

This past week students have been working hard on learning and practicing the steps of the

scientific method. This method is something we use quite often when it comes to science.

We learn as a team and work together. Everyone has a job to do and when everyone works

together great things happen in science everyday. We support one another, we encourage one another and we learn together by being critical thinkers. In order to be a critical thinker you must be able to ask the right questions.

They are as follows:

Step 1 - Question- Students must have a question they want to answer. For Example, which

paper towel holds the most water?

Step 2 - Hypothesis- In this step students make an educated guess on what they think the

results will be. In the paper towel lab, students would, as a group, make a guess to which paper

towel holds the most water.

Step 3 - Experiment- Students get to explore and test 5 different brands of paper towels and see which one holds the most water and which one holds the least. In this experiment, we tested out 5 different brands of paper towels: Everyday, Kirkland, School brand, Basic, and Bounty.

Each paper towel was placed in a beaker full of water for one minute. After one minute each

group of students removed the paper towel and once the paper towel started to drip they placed it in a funnel and squeezed all the water out and recorded the results. Each group tested each paper towel brand twice.

Step 4 - Observe and record the results - After testing each brand of paper towel, the students took turns writing down the results.

Step 5- Analysis- We looked at the results that each group recorded and shared this information with the class.

Step 6- Arrive at a conclusion by looking at all the results and analyze the information from each group. Together as a class, the students made a conclusion on the experiment. They found that the paper towel that holds the most water from the 5 we tested was Bounty.

As a class we discussed more experiments that can be done at home using the steps in the

scientific method. In every environment, one can find an experiment that can be done using the scientific method.

By Michelle Johnson, Food Service Director

Students at the Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted Schools, St. James School, and MAWSECO School participated in the Great Lakes Great Apple Crunch this year. K-12 schools and other organizations across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio participated. The idea is for there to be a “collective crunch” to encourage healthy eating and support farm to school and other local food purchasing initiatives. There were over 1.8 million crunchers registered this year across the states that participated! Apples were purchased from the Fall Harvest Orchard and the students and staff “crunched” their apples at noon on October 10th. It was fun to participate and enjoy a healthy snack at the same time!

by Jackie Hartneck, Special Education Teacher

As a special education teacher I adapt and modify curriculum as needed, but I still hold high expectations for all of my students. I want them to feel confident in their learning. One way I do this, is by having students track their own progress in reading and math. By tracking their own progress students are learning graphing skills, students are better informed about their progress of learning, students are able to hold themselves accountable to do better, and students seem to be more confident learners.

Each day students come into my room, get their fluency charts from the bin, and independently get started working on their reading and math fluency. When the students finish their timings, they graph their scores and then raise their hand for me to meet with them individually. Reading, understanding, and labeling a graph are skills that we started working on at the beginning of the year. This strategy has increased positive, constructive conversations between the students and I. We are able to discuss where they are at, where I want to see them get to, and how are they going to get to that level. Also, by having students track their own progress they are also building more self confidence and are pushing themselves to reach higher levels and are taking ownership of their work. Seeing the smiles on their faces each day shows me learning holds a special place in their heart.

by Darla Mackedanz, MS CCC-SLP
Speech-Language Pathologist

Far more than just a buzzword, “mindfulness” is a great way for children to transform how they react to stressful situations. At its simplest, mindfulness is a technique for learning how to pay attention to the details in the present moment. The benefits are numerous—including improved social skills, enhanced focus, fewer attention problems, and deeper relationships with others.

A popular mindfulness exercise known as STOP can be helpful:

• Stop. Just take a momentary pause, no matter what you’re doing.

• Take a breath. Feel the sensation of your own breathing, which brings you back to the present moment.

• Observe. Acknowledge what is happening, for good or bad, inside you or outside you.

• Proceed. Having briefly checked in with the present moment, continue with whatever it was you were doing.

There are lots of ways to make becoming “mindful” a process that’s easy and fun:

• Take advantage of children’s love of superheroes by asking them to be like their favorite character (focus on everything they can smell, hear, and taste with their super senses).

• Go on a mindfulness walk and pay special attention to the sounds of nature.

• Make a mindfulness jar. Fill a jar with water and add glitter. Explain to your children that the glitter represents your thoughts when you are stressed or anxious. Shake the jar—the “thoughts” scatter and swirl. Take a few moments to let the glitter settle, and the “thoughts” calm down so you can see more clearly.

• Pose mindfully. Instead of sitting or walking, ask your kids to strike a “power pose”—stand with feet just wider than hips, fists clenched, and arms stretched as high as possible over the head, or with clenched fists placed on the hips. The poses should make them feel strong and happy.

Calm co-founder Alex Tew said, “I think mindfulness is incredibly important for all ages, but if we can teach the kids to meditate, that’s an amazing, actually world-changing opportunity.”

For more information, visit https://www.nytimes.com/guides/well/mindfulness-for-children.